The Frame-Up
CBC Books | | Posted: May 24, 2019 2:48 PM | Last Updated: May 24, 2019
Wendy McLeod MacKnight
Filled with devious plots, shady characters, and a grand art heist, this inventive mystery-adventure celebrates art and artists and is perfect for fans of Night at the Museum and Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer.
There's one important rule at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery — don't let anyone know the paintings are alive. Mona Dunn, forever frozen at thirteen when her portrait was painted by William Orpen, has just broken that rule.
Luckily twelve-year-old Sargent Singer, an aspiring artist himself, is more interested in learning about the vast and intriguing world behind the frame than he is in sharing her secret. And when Mona and Sargent suspect shady dealings are happening behind the scenes at the gallery, they set out to uncover the culprit. T
hey must find a way to save the gallery — and each other — before they are lost forever. (From HarperCollins)
From the book
Mona Dunn was late. She leaped from one painting to the next, her damp hair flying like streamers on a bicycle, her dress darkened here and there by still-soggy undergarments. She'd known there wasn't enough time, even without the calamity, which had involved a stranger farther down the beach, whose presence had trapped her in the water thanks to an ill-thought-out decision to jump in wearing only her undergarments. Her mistake cost her twenty minutes. She would be the last to arrive at Lord Beaverbrook's monthly meeting, just like last month and the month before. Lord Beaverbrook would not be pleased.
Breathless, she arrived at the meeting location: Salvador Dalí's Santiago El Grande, one of the largest and most dramatic paintings in the art gallery, with its massive horse and rider soaring toward the heavens. Located in the Orientation Gallery, near the entrance, it was a crowd-pleaser. Lord Beaverbrook was already speaking. After slipping through the picture frame into the meeting, Mona dipped behind Andre Reidmor, hoping his voluminous cloak would hide her.
From The Frame-Up by Wendy McLeod MacKnight ©2018. Published by HarperCollins.